The main opposition CPN-UML will not immediately form position on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact that was tabled in the House on Sunday.
Chief Whip of UML Bishal Bhattarai pointed that the MCC Compact is an issue that should have been tabled in the House long time ago. "But it should have been tabled now through national consensus. But the issue has been dragged into the street now," he stated.
He added that UML will continue House obstruction until its demands are addressed and the party will not form position on the MCC immediately. "We will form our position only after we are allowed to speak about the demands that we have been raising. There has been no change in our strategy of House obstruction now. House obstruction will continue for now," he clarified.
Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanedra Bahadur Karki tabled the MCC Compact on behalf of Finance Minister Janardan Sharma, who was on 'sick leave', amidst obstruction by UML on Sunday.
The next House meeting has been called for February 24 when the MCC Compact is expected to be discussed on the floor.
Speaking before Minister Karki tabled the MCC Compact UML leader Bhim Rawal opposed the MCC Compact.
The then KP Sharma Oli government had registered a motion for ratification of the MCC Compact in the House in June 2019. But speakers Krishna Bahadur Mahara and then Agni Sapkota, both of whom won the last general election on Maoist ticket, did not allow tabling of the MCC Compact in the House even after registration of the motion due to internal dispute in the then ruling CPN.
The current UML, that was in the then CPN, has yet to make its position clear on the MCC Compact despite the government led by its current chairman Oli registering the motion for its ratification in the House over two and a half years back, and saying that the ruling coalition should first make its position clear.
